1. Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an electrical instrument and control method thereof to provide power rate information transmitted from a power provider to a user such that the user sets a reservation time on the basis of the power rate information.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent rapid increase in the number of devices powered by electricity, power demand increases year by year.
As can be seen from a power demand pattern, peak capacity is not reached during most days of the year, that is to say, power plants only operate at full capacity during a few days out of the year. A state in which a high power demand is required for a short time is called peak load. During periods of peak load, electricity costs the most to generate and deliver, and therefore power providers raise the power rate charged to consumers during periods of peak load. Costs for constructing an additional power plant are extremely high and maintenance costs for power plants constructed to maintain peak load for a short period are considerable.
Recently, numerous developers are conducting intensive research into a demand management method for temporarily restricting power consumption by limiting peak load without constructing such additional power plants. For the aforementioned purposes, demand management is a focus of attention, and a great deal of research is focused upon an advanced demand management format for demand response (DR).
DR is a system for intelligently managing energy consumption depending upon variation in power rates. That is, a consumer uses power in response to power rates rather than according to an ordinary power consumption pattern.
Therefore, electrical instruments to which DR is applied have been developed. The electrical instruments are provided with real-time power rates from a power provider and perform power-saving control based on the power rates.
However, conventional electrical instruments to which DR is applied do not provide power rate level information for each time period when a user sets a reservation time, and thus the user does not have knowledge of a low power rate period. Accordingly, the user may set a reservation time without considering power rates.